My most beautiful wordcount yet this month. Not just because it’s exactly 5 times my first day count. But because I didn’t expect to get there today, and wouldn’t have if everything hadn’t somehow slotted together to turn this into a flying day. I have a pretty long post in the works to explain that one, but for now suffice it to say everything just clicked
I didn’t really expect to get here today, especially when I didn’t really manage to start until around 14:00 (I managed to get up to 35k before then, but that was about it). A quick check of my wordcounts, hour by hour, reveals there hasn’t been a single full hour of writing since 14:00 where I didn’t go over 1500 words.
So I’ve made it past 50k, when I had more or less given up hope on shooting that high today, and I’ve also managed to set a new personal one day best. Up to 16,462 from 16,032. And I’ve managed to do it all without any major pain in my hands or wrists, which may well be the most important thing.
*bows to the word master and has nothing to add to that*
Ah, grasshopper…
Anyway thanks, but there’s no need to bow. Let’s face it with this being my sixth year I’ve had a bit of practice in getting here.
I’d have to check my archives to be sure, but I’m pretty certain you’re currently well ahead of where I was on day 8 of my first NaNo.
*lol* You got me with the grasshopper, I am still hiccoughing from laughter
And still, even though this is year six for you, it’s quite an achievement to get done this much. Have you ever managed to write this much in this time frame outside of November? Or is it really the NaNoWriMo challenge that makes you pour out that much content?
As for you last sentence: *grinning proudly*
Well if you want something to grin about: I did that check early this morning (around 02:00). I was actually running behind on day 8 of my first NaNoWriMo with only 10.3k to my name. Day 9 is when I took of that year, suddenly hitting 2k
or more every day.
As for November versus other times: I’ve never managed 50k in 8 days outside of November, though I have occasionally managed 50k in thirty days during other months. So this specific pace is very much November, but I do sometimes manage to get a good pace going outside of November as well.
I actually think part of the reason for this insane sprint may be that I just haven’t written as much as I wanted to earlier this year, so there’s some pent up inspiration trying to get out now. It’s fun, but it’s probably also a sign I should write more outside of NaNoWriMo next year.
Yay! Stupid as it may sound, but knowing that someone as creative as you actually made less words on his first NaNoWriMo than me is somewhat of a motivation (don’t get me wrong, I am not meaning to be arrogant or something, it’s just some kind of childish joy).
With the amount you are writing, have you ever published? I think I recall you mentioning that you plan on releasing something, but I am not sure. It would be a waste for all the stories you’ve come up with to not be read by anyone but you. Judging from your blog and your work on the Three-Edged-Sword podcast, I figure your writing is probably pretty good. I’d love to read some of it one day.
Actually I always worry a bit about the quality of my writing during NaNoWriMo, but when I read it back later it’s usually not a lot worse than any other first drafts I may write. Of course I know there are problems in the 50,505 words I’ve got so far, but most of those would have been there even if I hadn’t set this page.
All my first drafts tend to suffer from “blank room syndrome” (dialogue with virtually no description the surroundings), and this one is no different. In fact it’s probably a worse than average case, because I only really started to figure out myself what my space station looks like about 20k or so into the story.
But that’s something I’d always have had to pay attention to during editing, so I mentally flag it and go on. That’s about the only thing that’s different about NaNo for me, beyond the pure speed, I seldom go back and fix things during the first draft anyway, but I never do during NaNo.
I have adhered so far to Chris Baty’s advise and locked my inner editor away (yes, I have his book but because of all the writing I don’t get to read it *aww*). While I write I notice that many, many parts need to be reworked: the dialogue is cheesy, the perspective needs to be changed, and so on. But I just keep writing and make some notes in the little ‘notes’ window that is off the side of my writing area, knowing I can fix all of that later.
When I will read through this in December or later, I will probably shake my head at many passages, but then, it will – hopefully – be the first larger story I have ever finished. That’s worth the editor’s nightmare.
I keep my inner editor locked way at least a little most of the time while writing first draft material. I’ve had to deal with “eternal revision syndrome” in the past. Because of an over active inner editor I was stuck rewriting the same first 30k to (on the longest draft) 70k of a novel, never getting any further than that. I didn’t finish anything until I decided to just stop revising and keep writing until I could type “The End” under it all with some justification.